The Legacy

The Legacy written by William Henry Davies

From "Poems 1930-1931", 1932

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She died when I was wild and young,
And I myself am old by now;
And still her small, few shillings come,
Like shoots from a severed bough.

Though they have dwindled, year by year,
Can I despise these tiny gains -
Worth little more than children's weeds
Picked in the woods and kissed in lanes?

Not while I think her spirit lives
And, close beside me, understands
The grateful love - so long delayed -
In the kiss on her ghostly hands.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.